PM Transcripts

PRESS OFFICE TRANSCRIPT MONDAY, 14 JANUARY 1980
DOORSTOP INTERVIEW, MELBOURNE, ON OLYMPIC GAMES
Question ( Inaudible)
Prime Minister
For a long while, the Australian Government tried to
maintain the view that politics and sport should be kept
quite separate and then everyone told us that you could not
keep the two separate, and this was especially in relation
to aparthied in South Africa. Governments that introduced
politics into sport have really been responsible for bringing
the two together. I think it is probably quite unreal for
anyone today to pretend that there are not significant
political implications in great sporting events, and it is
unfortunate that that does apply to the Olympic Gamnes just
as much as to other things.
The suggestions that have been made that the Olympics should
find a permanent home in Greece, I believe are well worth
consideration. It would certainly prevent,. I think, politicisation
of the Olympics which is likely to happen if the nature of
the Olympics is not altered. Another option for the future
of the Games that instead of having a massive effort for the
Gamnes to be mounted in one country, may be to have them mounted
in five or six countries which would enable a much larger
number of countries to participate in presenting the Gamnes
than at the moment, because of the massive cost involved.
0